1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid discharging apparatus such as an ink jet type recording apparatus, a control method of a liquid discharging apparatus, and a device driver, and in particular, relates to a liquid discharging apparatus, a control method of a liquid discharging apparatus, and a device driver that are capable of performing a maintenance operation that recovers liquid discharge faults in nozzles of a liquid discharging head.
2. Related Art
A liquid discharging apparatus is an apparatus that is provided with a liquid discharging head, and that discharges (ejects) various liquids from a nozzle of the liquid discharging head. Image recording apparatuses such as ink jet type printers and ink jet type plotters are examples of such liquid discharging apparatuses, but in recent years, liquid discharging apparatuses have also been applied to various manufacturing apparatuses to make use of the feature of being able to accurately land a very small quantity of liquid in a predetermined position. For example, liquid discharging apparatuses have been applied to display manufacturing apparatuses that manufacture color filters such as liquid crystal displays, electrode formation apparatuses that form electrodes such as organic Electro Luminescence (EL) displays and Field Emitting Displays (FEDs), and chip manufacturing apparatuses that manufacture biochips (biochemical elements). Further, liquid form ink is discharged in recording heads for image recording apparatuses, and solutions of each color material of Red (R), Green (G), and blue (B) are discharged from a nozzle in color material discharging heads for display manufacturing apparatuses. In addition, liquid form electrode materials are discharged in electrode material discharging heads for electrode formation apparatuses, and solutions of living organic material are discharged from a nozzle in living organic material discharging heads for chip manufacturing apparatuses.
In the above-mentioned liquid discharging apparatuses, in a case in which a discharge fault in which liquid is not discharged from a nozzle of the liquid discharging head, occurs, a technique that restores the discharge performance of liquid in a nozzle by executing a maintenance operation (a suction cleaning operation) that ejects liquid and air bubbles from a nozzle as a result of changing the inside of a sealed space portion to have a negative pressure using a suction unit in a state in which a nozzle surface of the liquid discharging head is sealed using a capping member, is adopted (for example, refer to JP-A-2010-058464). In addition, in recent years, liquid discharging apparatuses that execute a maintenance operation (a pressurization cleaning operation) that ejects ink and air bubbles from a nozzle in a cap, or the like, by increasing the pressure of an upstream side in a supply pathway of liquid more than the liquid discharging head using a pressurization unit (a flow channel pump), have been proposed (for example, refer to JP-A-2011-167959).
However, in a case in which a discharge fault occurs in a nozzle, depending on the type of liquid to be discharged or the type of landing target of the corresponding liquid, there are also cases in which there is not a problem with the quality of a product (for example, an image, or the like, that is formed as a result of a liquid landing on a landing target such as a recording medium) of a discharge operation even if a maintenance operation is not performed. Additionally, there are also cases in which, as long as the quality of the product is satisfactory, a user prefers not to have a deterioration in throughput due to the operation time as a result of the maintenance operation being executed, or the consumption of liquid in the maintenance operation. However, in a case in which a discharge operation is continued without performing the maintenance operation in a state in which a discharge fault has occurred, in a configuration that calculates a residual amount of liquid in a liquid retention member on the basis of the number of discharge operations by a driving element (the number of applications of a driving pulse to the driving element), as a result of liquid being counted as consumed liquid regardless of the fact that liquid is not discharged from a nozzle in practice, there are also cases in which there is an inconsistency between a corresponding count value and a practical consumption amount of liquid. In this case, there are cases in which, regardless of the fact that there is liquid remaining in the liquid retention member, it is determined that the residual amount of liquid is depleted on the basis of the count value, and therefore, it is not possible to continue the discharge operation. In addition, in a configuration in which a user is prompted in a case in which it is determined that the residual amount of liquid is depleted on the basis of the count value, it is possible to consider being prompted as inconvenient to the user.